History of Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Standards

This history was first compiled by Joe L Koepfinger, PE, IEEE Life Fellow. There are still sections in this account that need to be fleshed out. Joe Koepfinger invites all his fellow IEEE members interested in the history IEEE Standards to fill in the gaps in this article.

The AIEE was formed in 1884. In less than a year after its founding it established 11 technical committees related to the electrical technologies of that time. In today’s terminology they could be classified as: Electric Machinery, Transmission, Lighting, Energy Storage, Rail Transportation, Chemical Industry, Instruments and Measurements.

At the time of the formation of these AIEE technical committees in 1885. they established several administrative type committees. By 1886 only the administrative committee continued to exist. Most of the convenes of the technical committees were entrepreneurs and managers who had companies that demanded their attention. Their initial interess were not in exchange of technical knowledge and standardization. Shortly after the founding of the AIEE, the technical leadership drifted awa, leaving the operation of the Society in the hands of three members, Hamilton, Houston and Keith.

Beginning of AIEE Standard Activity

Electrical Units

In 1885 Navy Captain O. E Michaelis asked the |AIEE to act on a motion he made to the 1884 National Conference of Electricians to establish standard names for electrical and other units. In 1888 Francis Crocker, a member of AIEE, proposed “American names for electrical units be adopted at the next meeting of the AIEE in 1889.” The result of his proposal was the establishment by IEEE of a standing Committee on Units and Standards, chaired by Arthur Kennelly.

They prepared the first standards report within a few months. It is reported that the Committee recommended terms for magnetism and inductance.[1]

The Council of AIEE of 1893 received the Committee of Standards report, but did not adopt it as a standard. They were unsure of the Institute’s roll in producing standards. Some of the members were interested in the adoption of the terms as standard electric units, but the Council chose to follow the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) model of being an advisory body for terminology. One of the members, Mailloux, was strongly in favor of the adoption of the recommendation of the Committee of Standards as the first AIEE Standard.

In 1889. it is report that the President of AIEE, Elihu Thomson, appointed a delegation to attend an electrical conference meeting in Frankfort, Germany in 1891. At this meeting this delegation was to promote the use of the name Henry as the unit of Inductance. The delegation stressed the need for standard units of measure for magnetic field intensity and nominal values of resistance for copper wire.

As a result of this international experience, AIEE decided to organized an International Electrical Conference in Chicago to be held August 1893, as part of the Chicago Fair, to further promote the international adopting of the their names for the units of measurement of electric and magnetic quantities. They were successful in getting provisional acceptance of the following units:

Table 3: Quantities and Units Given Provisional Acceptance in 1893

Quantity; Symbols; Terminology

1. Magnetic Flux Density; B; Gauss

2. Magnetic Flux; Ø; Webers

3. Magnetomotive Force; F; Gilbert

4. Magnetizing Force; H; Oersted

5. Inductances; L; Henr

Notes on Table 3:

A) The modern symbols have been shown for convenience.

B) Reference given in footnote (1) states that name given to a unit of Reluctance was Oersted. It is believed that this may not be correct since the term Oersted is used today for the unit of measure of Magnetic Force.

If the symbol R is used to represent Reluctance it is defined by the equation: R= F/Ø. Thus, it is a function of the provisional units.

Through the efforts of the AIEE, these units were adopted by the United States Congress in 1894.

The next venture by the AIEE into standardization was stimulated by two industrial organizations; the National Telephone Exchange Association (NTEA) and the National Electric Light Association (NELA) which requested AIEE to consider the standardization of wire gages. In 1885 they adopted the British Board of Trade Standard Wire Gage and requested that this be considered by AIEE.

In 1886 the Secretary, of the Institute, Ralph Pope, introduced a motion for the AIEE to adopt the same wire gage standard. His brother, Franklin Pope, had just been elected President of AIEE and was not supportive of the motion. He was supported in his opinion by the other members of the governing body. Even at this early time the conservatism of the Institute’s interest in standard development was very evident. The new president decided to form a committed to study the literature on this issue. He formed a Standards Committee chaired by O.E. Michaelis and consisting of George Phelps Jr. and Cyprien Mailloux.

It is reported that Ralph Pope was not a happy camper and tried to get this new Standard Committee to act quickly by making a report the next day, That did not happen. The new Committee indicated that they would have a report for the next meeting of the AIEE Council, the governing body. This did not happen. The new committee dithered around researching the subject for three years. without making a recommendation.

It is reported that industry pressure continued to mount for some decision. Francis Crocker became impatient with the Standards Committee’s progress and formed a Standards Wiring Table Committee whose members consisted of manufacturers, engineering designers and educators. The members were Schuyler S. Wheeler, Arthur Kennelly, William Stanley and Louis Duncan. A draft report was produced in six months followed by a final report in two more months.

This report failed to make a recommendation for the adoption of the table of wire gauges. It is reported that the Council was not yet ready to embark in the issuing of standards. but instead considered the report to be guidance information to industry.

So after 10 years of standard development work and two standard developing efforts, the AIEE in 1898 had yet to approve and adopt it first Standard.

Industrial Standards

Six years were to elapse before AIEE, responding to a request from the New York Electrical Society developed standards for apparatus. As the electric power industry became more mature an interest was created in standardization of products to be used by this industry. The stimulus came from several sources at about the same time; the Manufacturing segment of the industry, Management of the Electric Power interests, Consulting Engineers, Researchers, and Educators, following a meeting of members of this interest group in New York.

The 1926, IRE publication listed the AIEE standards. At that time there were 71 standards, recommended practices and specification. The prices ranged from $0.30 to $0.40 for each document.

Structure of the AIEE

The structure of the AIEE before the merger of IRE and AIEE is incomplete. It is known that they had an organizational structure that was similar in nature to that of the present IEEE Power Engineering Society. The committee structure of AIEE was responsible for the early development of AIEE Standards for Switches, Breakers, Transmission and Distribution equipment, Protective Relays, Rotating Machinery, and Lightning Protection of Equipment.

History of Breaker and Switch Standards in the AIEE

One of the active standard development committees in the AIEE involved equipment standards for substation equipment like switches, circuit breakers, protective relays and lightning arresters.

By 1921 the Protective Device Committee existed and it had a Subcommittee on Circuit Breakers and Switches. The committee was addressing the testing needs and ratings of the breakers including the fault current interrupting capability of the breakers. There were inadequate laboratory facilities, at that point in time to allow for adequate testing to determine more specifically the rating of the breakers. Because of the unavailability of laboratory testing facilities many of the electric utilities co-located with the breaker manufacturers cooperated with the manufactures to allow fault interrupting tests to be conducted at the high voltage substation during this period. One such cooperative arrangement was between Westinghouse Manufacturing Corp and the Duquesne Light Co at their 69kV Wilmerding Substation.

It was identified, as a result of a questionnaire to the operating companies, that their was no standard in 1921 for the oil being use in the circuit breakers of the time. A recommendation was made that it would be desirable to standardize on the characteristics of the breaker insulating oil.[2]

For most years from 1921 through 1961, a report was made on the development work used in the standardization of the testing procedure for circuit breaker. This report was contained in the AIEE Transactions.

In 1924 definitions were proposed for the following breaker terminology:

Interrupting Rating of Oil Circuit Breaker

Operating Duty of Oil Circuit Breaker

Interrupting Performance of Oil Circuit Breaker

Standard Operating Duty Cycle

These definitions were approved by the AIEE Standards Committee in 1925.[3]

In 1936 the Oil Circuit Breaker Standard was identified as AIEE #19, Oil Circuit Breakers. It was approved by the AIEE Standards Committee on April 29, 1936 and forwarded to American National Standards Association (ASA) for approval.

AIEE # 19 was revised again in 1941 to incorporate two changes. One was to recognize tests for Air Circuit Breakers and the other change to establish new Basic Insulation Levels (BIL); Sometime before 1941, additional definitions were added to AIEE #19 the new definitions were:

Rated Momentary Current

Rated Making Current>

Rated 5 Second Current

Rated Interrupting Current

Material for changing AIEE Standard #19 was based on technical papers that were present by industry leaders such as C.F Wagner, C.A. Woodrow, W.R. Skeates, R.C. van Sickle and H. A. Travers published in AIEE Transactions from 1936 on. This was also supplemented by Committee reports.

The Protective Devices Committee’s Subcommittee on Circuit Breakers and Switches was a forum for generating AIEE transaction papers The transaction papers and the associated discussion provided a formal venue for the development by the Committee of new ideas and revision of existing material in AIEE #19. The members of the technical committees of the time period were experts in their fields and were willing to share their research and knowledge freely with their peer.

By 1943 it is indicated in the reports of the Protective Devices Committee that the name of the Oil Circuit Breaker and Switch Subcommittee was changed to Circuit Breaker, Switch and Fuse Subcommittee.[4] That same report noted two new AIEE breaker standards were developed. AIEE Std #19 was given a name change to “AC Power Circuit Breakers”. In addition, it was noted that two new breaker standards were developed.

AIEE #20 “Low-voltage Air Circuit Breakers”

AIEE #21 “Apparatus Bushings”

Changes were made in the calculation of short circuit current for the application of circuit breakers. This was published in the February 1944 issue of the Electrical Engineer”. This method of informing the electrical engineering community of a potential change in a standard was an effecive method of communication without the formality of balloting a standard draft.

Formation of Two New Committees from the Protective Devices Committee

In 1947 the Relay and Switchgear Groups were separated from the Protective Devices Committee and given the status of a Committee under the Power Group. The Protective Devices Committee remained as the home for Lightning Protection. (It is not known at this writing if there were other function covered by the Protective Devices Committee at that time).

Following WWII there was a very rapid expansion of the electric power system. The growth rate approached 10% per year. Many new engineers were entering the work force. This expansion was accompanied by a need for guidance of these newly minted engineers. It was not unusual for their mentor to suggest that they should avail themselves of the AIEE Standards. The electrical equipment manufacturers, electric utilities and educators were active participants in the Protective Devices Committee, the Relay Committee, the Switchgear Committee and the T & D Committee. The members were encouraged to write Transaction Papers and prepare Technical Reports. Most of this effort was devoted to the development of application document and discussion of issues affecting the standards.

By 1949 it became apparent that the demand for energy would require an increase in the transmission voltage for the electric power system. The voltages were increased from 69kV and115 kV to 138 kV and 230 kV. With the higher transmission voltage, there was an accompanying need to review existing switchgear standards and insulation coordination standards. It was recognized in 1949 that consideration need to be given to insulation flashover deionization time when applying high speed reclosing. This was discussed in an AIEE Transaction paper by A.C. Boisseau, B.W Wyman and W.F. Skeats.[5] The recommendation in these paper lead to change in the application guide for applying circuit breakers to high voltage transmission lines.

Work done by Bryon Evans and C. Lee Kilgore based upon investigations done at Grand Coulee Power Plant on the 230 kV transmission lines indicated that standards for testing and applying AC Circuit Breakers was not adequate and needed to be revised.[6] In this paper they recommended 7 changes in the AIEE #19. Testing for the interrupting capacity of the circuit breaker need to be changed from the use of asymmetrical current to a symmetrical current bases. They introduced the concept of the need to test a breaker for its Transient Recovery Voltage (TOV) capability. Guidance was provided on the need to limit TOV to 2.5 per unit. Similarly, it was recommended that the maximum out-of-phase switching test voltage needed to be specified. They recommended 2.5 per unit. Another important recommendation was to relax the maintenance requirement in the standard from an inspection after every two operations to an integrated kVA that was 10 times the breakers declared interrupting rating at rated capacity.

Three other Transaction papers addressed the need for changes in AIEE #19. The titles of these papers are:

Correlation of Interrupting Rating and Application of Power Circuit Breakers[7]

Up until the time of the AIEE and IRE merger, use was made of AIEE Transaction paper to present and discuss proposed changes in the circuit breaker standards. Not only were AIEE Transaction papers written on switchgear testing and other issues relating to AIEE Switchgear Standards, but papers were presented that made comparisons between AIEE and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) circuit breaker standards.[10]

History of Protective Relay Standards

It is not known when the first relay standard was produce, but in 1949 the Relay Committee became concern about the need to establish an insulation level for Protective Relays and recommended a revision of C37.1-1937. It established that relay insulation should withstand 1500 V rms during a factory test and for field test it should withstand a value of 75% of the 1500 V rms or 1125 V rms.

History of Lightning Arrester Standards in the AIEE

(Remains to be completed)

History of Transmission and Distribution Standards in the AIEE

(Remains to be completed)

History of Transformer Standards in the AIEE

(Remains to be completed)

IRE

Beginning of the IRE Standard

The IRE was founded May 13, 1912 to advance the theory and practice of radio and allied branches of engineering and of the related arts and sciences. In this same year its first standards committee was appointed. Its task was to prepare a report dealing with the definitions of terms, letter and graphical symbols, and methods of testing and rating equipment.[11][12]

One of the stimulating forces for the founding of the IRE was the difficulty that engineers were finding in obtaining dependable technical information. There was considerable secrecy in the industry about this new technology of the time.[13] The spirit of the time was drivn by competition and not one of cooperation.

Growth of the IRE

The IRE was founded by the merger of two organizations the SWTE and the Wireless Institute with 50 members. By 1952 it had abut 30,000 members. It was projected that, by the 1965-1970 period the membership would be between 60,000 and 100,000 people.

IRE Standard Reports

The first report was published as a preliminary report on 10 September 1913. This report was titled Definitions of Terms and Graphical and Literal Symbols. The Committee consisted of the Chair, Robert H. Marriott, United States Radio Inspector, Department of Commerce, New York, NY and four other members.

The 1914 report shows that the Chair of the Committee of Standardization was John Stone. The other members of the Committee were Arthur E Kennelly, who was very active in AIEE, Ernest R Cram, Guy Hill, Greeleaf W. Pickard, Frederick A. Kolster, Alfred E. Seelig and Louis W. Austin. Other reports were published in 1915, 1922, 1926, 1928, 1931, and 1933.

The Committee on Standardization published a preliminary report on 10 September 10, 1913. This report contained a ballot of 129 definitions, 59 Letter Symbols and 32 graphic symbols. Some of the terminology is different than that currently in use today. For example, the term Capacity was defined as “That property of a material system by virtue of which is capable of storing energy electrostatically”. A search of the IEEE 100 Authoritative Dictionary of IEEE Standard Terms seventh Edition does not mention this term. The Committee that produced this report consisted of the Chair, Robert H. Marriott, a United States Radio Inspector, Department of Commerce, New York , NY and five other members.

In 1915, the IRE Committee on Standardization consisted of the Chairman, Alfred N. Goldsmith of the College of the City of New York and 17members.

In 1920 a Committee was appointed by President Hogan to do a survey to determine nomenclature used in radio engineering for the period of 191 to 1920. This committee was chaired by Donald McNicol and it had 20 members.

By 1922 the IRE had divided the list of standards into seven groups. One of these groups was Definitions of Terms and Conditions used in Radio Engineering. (Note: further research is needed to find out what the other six groups were.)

IEEE Standards Development Program

Background

The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers was founded on 1 January 1963 as the result of a merger of AIEE and IRE. Both of these merging organizations had viable standard development operations at the time of the merger. Their standards development programs were assumed by the IEEE Standards Board, which was a Committee of the IEEE Technical Advisory Board’s Operations Committee (TAB-OPCOM). The Technical Advisory Board reported to the Institute’s Board of Directors.

At the time of the founding of IEEE in 1963 the number of standards inherited by IEEE is unknown at this time. The sale of standards was very flat for the first six years after the merger. The next four years saw a 10 fold increase in sales for a total sales of $310,000.[14]

The By-Laws of the IEEE delegate to the IEEE Standards Board all matters relating to standards. The Standards Board was to establish, coordinate, develop, approve, and revise IEEE standards and conduct any other standards-related activities in fields of interest to the IEEE. It was charged with being the only Institute body interfaced with external bodies in all matters relating to standards.

Identification of Standards

The policies of the IEEE at the time of the merger required a five year review of their standard to determine if the standard should be re-affirmed, withdrawn or revised. As the standards of each merged organization reached this stage, identity designation of the standards were changed. For example AIEE No 28 became IEEE 28. The AIEE series of switchgear and protective relay standards were all part of the AIEE C37 series. A similar progression was made in the identity covered by the C57 series for Transformer and Reactor.

IEEE Relationship to American National Standard Institute

At the time of the merger of AIEE and IRE there was in existence three Accredited American National Standards Committees which acted as coordinating bodies for the C37 Switchgear Standards, C57 Transformer Standards and C62 Surge Protective Devices Standards. These were committees of the American National Standard Institute. Prior to the merger, there were three organizations that develop standards for the three types of equipment listed above. The three organizations were Electric Light and Power (EL&P) group (later to be known as the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), National Electrical Manufacturers Association(NEMA), and AIEE.

These three organizations were developing overlapping standards. To avoid confusing in the industry a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was developed between IEEE, NEMA and EEI. This agreement designated that all three organizations would process their standards, to be recognized a American National Standards, relating to these three technology through the respective “C” committee. IEEE was to develop testing standards and application standards for these products. Limits and values use in these standards were to be requested from NEMA.

In theory this arrangement worked, but in practice it gave the ”C” committee veto power over the work of each other. In 1982 EEI Board of Directors want to reduce their liability and chose to exit from being a direct participant in the development of standard. Thus, they exited from the standard development process, but continued to actively participate in the balloting process of each of the “C” committees. Concern was raised in the 1980s about this voting arrangement. At times the voting on IEEE standards was not responded to by the other parties. In some cases, a year or more delay occurred to an IEEE standard being approved as an American National Standard.

An Ad Hoc study group was established by the new Board of Governors in 2002 that was chaired by John W. Estey, who was the 2002-2003 President of IEEE Power Engineering Society (PES). He was also President of S and C Electric Company. This group recommended that IEEE withdraw from the MOU.

By 2003 IEEE had taken action to withdraw from the MOU. In the process of dissolving the MOU, some the “C” standards, for which IEEE did not won the the copyright remained with their respective “C” committees. The secretariat for these committees is NEMA. Now IEEE is free to chose which standards it process under the ANSI Accredited Organization Method to be recognition as American National Standards.

In 1976 IEEE was successful in obtaining a seat on the IEEE Board of Directors (BOD). The Chair of the Standards Board was an pointed member of the BOD. Mr. William Kruse was the first IEEE Standards Board Chair to serve in this position. By establishing this new position on the BOD it allowed IEEE Standards Board to have more direct input to the Board on financial matters facing them.

Board of Governors

In 1996-1997 the IEEE Standards Board was finding it difficult to get the attention of the IEEE Board of Directors. The officers of IEEE Standards Board (SB) felt that it was time for IEEE SB to request to be considered a Major Board of the Institute, since the Standards Department was providing considerable monitary support to the Institute. One of the requirements for such a move was that the Chair of IEEE SB had to be changed from an appointed position to an elected position. Being a major Board would allow IEEE SB to be more in control of its own destiny. It also had to charge its members a annual fee.

By 1998 the details were worked out and IEEE –SB had an new governing body known as the Board of Governors (BoG)., With this action the Standards Board was renamed IEEE-SA Standards Board. The BoG consisted of a President elected by the Members of IEEE-SA, the immediate Past President and 10 elected members. The first President was John L Rankin, a past Chairman of the IEEE Standards Board. The Secretary of the BoG is also the Managing Director of Standards for IEEE. The BoG sets policies, manages the finance and represents IEEE in standard matters to parties outside of IEEE. IEEE-SA is delegated the duties to manage the IEEE Standard development process.

In 2005 it was decided that it would be desirable to create the office of President-Elect for the BoG. This would allow the incoming President to be better prepared to take over the duties of the President. The office was created in 2006 and the first President-Elect was George Arnold of National Institute of Science and Technology.

Important Standard Development Since the Founding of the IEEE Standards Board

The IEEE Computer Society has been a leader in addressing the need for Information Technology Standards. Its 802 series of standards has been instrumental in the rapid world wide acceptance of wireless communications. The use of these communication has greatly aided those areas of the world that does not possess a developed communication infrastructure.

The Nuclear Power Engineering Committee of the IEEE Power and Energy Society played a major role in the development of standards for the Nuclear Power Industry. Starting in the early 1960 it has produced standards fordesign and operation of reliable and safe nuclear power plants. This was done in close cooperation with the Nuclear Regulator Agency (NRC).

In 1998, The IEEE Standards board was reorganized and given more autonomy as the IEEE Standards Association.

One of IEEE Standards Board fine accomplishments has been the result of the work of Dr. Bruce Barrow and his Standard Coordinating Committee 14 on standard specialization (quantities, units, and letter symbols and the monitoring of the use of meter systems in IEEE Standards). He has carried on the work in this field with the same enthusiasm that the founders of AIEE had in 1885. This committee reviews every standard before it is published for the correct use of units, letter symbols and the metric systems. He just resigned as Chair of this SCC in the spring of 2008. He held this position for many years.

Annex A-- Topics Defined in the Institute of Radio Engineers' Committee on Standardization, 10 September 1913

↑H.P. St Clair and Otto Naef, Considerations in the rating and Testing of Power Circuit Breakers, &lt;u&gt;AIEE Transaction on Power Apparatus &amp;amp;amp; System, Vol 71, Part III, 1952, pp 144-52.&lt;/u&gt;

↑R.C. van Sickle, Is the European Circuit Breaker Rating System Rally more Conservative than the American, &lt;u&gt;AIEE Transaction on power Apparatus &amp;amp;amp; System, Vol 72, Part III, 1953, pp 787-93.&lt;/u&gt;

↑The Institute of Radio Engineers Report of the Standardization of 1926.

↑The Institute of Radio Engineers Report of the Standardization of 1943, Introduction to the 1943 Edition.

↑Alfred N. Goldsmith and John V. L. Hogan, “The I.R.E. From Acorn to Oak”, Rehearsal of a discussion to be given at the Annual, Recorded on 22 February 1952.